Highly conductive n-type hydrogenated nanocrystalline cubic silicon carbide (nc-3C-SiC:H) films have been deposited by hotwire chemical vapor deposition at low temperatures below 300 C. We found that hexamethyldisilazane is an effective dopant for n-type doping into nc-3C-SiC:H films. Dark conductivity and its activation energy for the n-type nc-3C-SiC:H film were found to be 5.32 S/cm and 25 meV. We also fabricated nc-3C-SiC:H/crystalline silicon heterojunction diodes and solar cells. These devices showed good rectifying characteristics, and conversion efficiency of 13.4% was achieved.

The n-type microcrystalline cubic silicon carbide (mc-3C-SiC:H) films were deposited by hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) at a low substrate temperature ($300 C). Heterojunction silicon based photovoltaic devices were fabricated by depositing wide band gap n-type mc-3C-SiC thin films on p-type Si wafers, whose thickness and resistivity were 200 mm and 1-10 cm, respectively. The silicon wafers were textured using alkaline etchant prior to the device fabrication. The photovoltaic parameters of a typical device were found to be V oc ¼ 560 mV, J sc ¼ 35:0 mA/cm 2 , fill factor (F.F.) = 0.724, and ¼ 14:20%. Numerical analysis was performed using automat for simulation of hetero structures (AFORS-HET), a onedimensional device simulators to determine the probable cause of the changes in device parameters before and after the ageing of the filament.

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